The assemblies disclosed therein are primarily intended to support crush loads applied vertically downward on the assembly.
The present invention relates to wedge assemblies for supporting doors, particularly tail gate doors and sliding van doors in motor vehicles.
During normal use over time, automotive doors and door latching systems may rattle and thereby generate stress that contributes to metal fatigue at the hinge and at the latch locations. In order to obviate these unwanted consequences, wedge assemblies have been used between the door frame and the door to prevent such vibrations from occurring. One such assembly is a spring-biased wedge assembly set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,100 and assigned to the present assignee, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In that assembly a slide member is captured by a base plate which is mounted to the door of a vehicle, such that the slide member or wedge element is slidable along a pair of spaced parallel and inclined cam surfaces on the base plate. The wedge or slide is pulled towards a start or extreme position at one end of the cam surfaces by a spring and can thus be forced down the cam surfaces against the action of the spring by the vehicle surface which it strikes when the door is closed. Such devices are designed to be supported on a horizontal surface of the door of a vehicle and cooperate with an exposed metal surface of the automotive frame. It has been found that the wedge or sliding element, which is usually molded plastic, is subjected to severe stress from continuous contact with the metal door frame, such that the sliding element can become structurally weakened and deformed over time even contributing to the very misalignment which it was designed to prevent.
Also, in the case of horizontally pivoted tail gate doors that swing down for closure, an enormous amount of torque load is experienced along the length and width of the door, giving rise therefore to twist and weakening of the hinge or mounting points of the door. Similarly, in the case of sliding doors for vans that experience compound motions when brought to closure, an equally large amount of torque may be generated via the considerable dimensions of such doors. There is a need then for a wedge assembly which can overcome these detrimental forces or torque loads and so provide proper closure between such doors and their door frames and thus maintain a rigid relation between the two that will prevent misalignment.